How much is the fellowship stipend and what does it cover?
How long will my fellowship last? How much time will the fellowship require during the year?
What types of site visits and events do you typically have?
Can I participate in the program and still continue to work as a reporter?
What are the eligibility requirements? Can I apply if I’m not a health reporter?
How do I apply?
Should I email my application materials or submit them online?
What about non-U.S. journalists?
What about early-career journalists?
Why did the fellowship program change in 2005?
What has changed?
What has stayed the same?
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How much is the fellowship stipend and what does it cover?

All stipends are awarded on the basis of length of fellowship and project need, for up to $55,000 for a nine-month fellowship. Applicants need to submit a budget outline and an estimated timeframe for their project. The Kaiser Media Fellowships Program, in conjunction with the National Advisory Committee, awards each fellow a stipend that takes this into account.

In addition to the stipend, the fellowship program also covers project expenses, including travel, laptop and telephone/internet. Academic coursework is an option, although not required.

How long will my fellowship last? How much time will the fellowship require during the year?

The program has a minimum one-month research/reporting project, but fellows have the option of undertaking a fellowship project for up to nine months. Typically, fellows begin their fellowships in September of each year. There may be individual needs that make this timing inconvenient – for example, some fellows may want to complete projects over a longer time frame, while others may find it fits better with current work assignments to start mid-summer. Provided fellows participate in all core program events, which will be spaced over the year, every effort will be made to be responsive to such considerations.

All fellows participate in the program site visits and group meetings that are held at intervals throughout the fellowship year. These vary in length from a couple of days to a week, for a total 3-4 weeks in any calendar year.

What types of site visits and events do you typically have?   

Site visit topics vary greatly, but focus mainly on U.S. health policy issues such as the post-Katrina health issues in the Gulf Coast and the VA health care system.  From time to time, we conduct site visits outside of the United States to examine issues with direct relevance to the U.S. Our August 2004 site visit to Canada, for example, focused on prescription drug pricing, and our May 2003 site visit examined Brazil’s response to HIV/AIDS and the lessons to be learned for the U.S.

Past programs have focused on prescription drug pricing and access to medication, safety net services and care for the uninsured, and cultural barriers to health care.  Fellows are consulted in planning for site visits briefings, and are asked to contribute suggestions about site visit topics and locations (see the Site Visits and Events page for more details on fellowship meetings).

The fellowship program is giving an increasing emphasis to helping journalists report across different media, with trainings designed to address the fellows' needs.  The 2008 fellows met in Washington, D.C., for an intensive three-day skills building workshop on multi-media reporting including blogging, and audio-visual reporting in addition, each November, there is a program at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, for a 3-day seminar on spreadsheet reporting and multi-media techniques and technologies.

Can I participate in the program and still continue to work as a reporter?

Yes—subject to agreeing to the specific details with your editor/news director/news organization. There is no bar on fellows continuing to report during their fellowships. 

Fellows are encouraged to do reporting based on their fellowship research and to experiment with different media or forms of reporting.

Most—but not all—fellows undertake projects in discussion with their news organization; and their fellowship reporting results in an in-depth series, documentary or other piece of substantive work. Applicants proposing to continue working in the newsroom on a daily basis, fitting the fellowship around their continuing newsroom obligations, are advised to propose a limited fellowship project.

What are the eligibility requirements? Can I apply if I’m not a health reporter?

Health reporting covers a broad range of beats and topics – the health section, the business and politics beats, columnists and editorial writers – to name a few.  As a result, any journalist, editor, or producer specializing in health reporting – or wanting to do so – is eligible, with one main restriction: applicants must be U.S. citizens, or must work for an accredited U.S. media organization. There is no age restriction, but typically fellows are in the early to mid-career range, with at least five years experience as a journalist.  Selection is based on the fellow’s potential to benefit from the program and to contribute to health journalism, and on their project proposal.

Priority is given to projects otherwise unlikely to be undertaken or completed, focusing on issues that have not been reported or are under-reported, and which have a high likelihood of being published/aired and of reaching a mass audience. Priority may also be given to those that are complex and would benefit from an in-depth study or the opportunity to travel.

How do I apply?

There is no application form. Applications are due in March of each year. To apply, send the following materials to the program's executive director:

• A detailed letter describing your reasons for applying; your career goals; a short outline of the project/s you would want to complete during the fellowship year; and what you would aim to accomplish as a result of the fellowship.
• Include a brief description of what you would hope to do with the work beyond the immediate outlet you anticipate using-- i.e. which other media platforms that would suit your project do you have skills in or access to? Also, include a brief summary of the tools and training that the Foundation can provide in order to help you accomplish this.
• Budget outline and estimated project timeframe (see more details below)
• Curriculum vitae or resume.
• Where relevant, details of previous awards or fellowships
• Examples of recent work
• • Print applicants: Original clips should be pasted or photocopied on to standard 8.5”x11” or 11”x17” paper (applicants may submit an original copy along with the mounted copy). If clips are reduced in size to fit the page, they should be legible. Special paper, margins, etc. are not necessary. Most importantly clips should be clean and clear, easy to photocopy and able to fit in a standard file folder.
  • For photographs, please submit regular prints and/or photocopies – no slides.
  • Broadcast applicants: TV applicants should send DVDs; radio applicants please send CDs. Please label each piece with your name, program title, running time and date aired.
  • Work samples will not be returned to applicants.
• One or more letters of support from other journalists familiar with your work, including a letter from your current senior editor or news director supporting your application (freelance journalists should send a letter of support from an editor, producer or colleague familiar with your recent work). Letters can be sent directly to Penny Duckham or included in your application file.

Budget outline and estimated timeframe: Applicants should describe how they would envisage carrying out their project and a broad timeline for achieving this, together with a brief sense of the likely project budget. For example, that in the first two months this project might involve travel to abc states or cities to interview abc projects or experts, at a likely cost of abc dollars.

Mail fellowship applications to:
Penny Duckham
Executive Director
Kaiser Media Fellowships Program
Kaiser Family Foundation
2400 Sand Hill Road
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Tel: 650-234-9220; fax: 650-854-4800 or 650-854-7465

Should I email my application materials or submit them online?

No. At the present time, we prefer to receive your application materials via regular mail at the address above by prior to, or on the application deadline.

What about non-U.S.  journalists?

While this program is for U.S. journalists, in 2004 Kaiser created the International Health Journalism Fellowship Project, assuming a new and evolving global journalism training role, running programs for journalists initially in Africa, India, and Russia and Ukraine. The focus is on reporting about HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. This work is largely supported by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Additionally, in 2007 the Foundation launched The Kaiser Mini-Fellowships for Global Health Reporting, a program offering fellowship awards to print, radio, television, and online journalists (including freelancers).

What about early-career journalists?

For journalists beginning their careers (or still in school), we offer the Kaiser Media Internships for Health Reporting. Established in 1994, this is an intensive 12-week summer internship for young journalists interested in specializing in health reporting. This program provides an initial week-long briefing on health issues and health reporting in Washington, D.C.  Interns are then based for ten weeks at their news organization, typically under the direction of the Health or Metro Editor/News Director, where they report on health issues. The aim is to create a network of new journalists with an in-depth introduction to and practical experience on the specialist health beat, especially as it pertains to diverse and immigrant communities. 

Why did the fellowship program change in 2005?

After ten years of operating our fellowship program for health journalists, the Kaiser Family Foundation began a review of our U.S. health journalism programs to take into account changes in the news business and the health beat. The question was not whether to maintain our fellowship program, but what form this should take. 

This new program will maintain the most successful elements of our U.S. health journalism programs, while incorporating changes to make the fellowship more flexible for journalists wanting to apply, but needing to juggle newsroom responsibilities.

We hope that this more flexible program will make it easier for a broader group of journalists to participate – such as senior editors, newsroom managers, as well as television reporters and producers and online journalists – who are currently unable to leave their newsroom jobs for the lengthier fellowships our programs entailed previously.

What has changed?

There are three basic elements to our new Kaiser Media Fellowships in Health Program:

• Fellows now have the option of undertaking a fellowship project for up to nine months—but shorter fellowship projects will now be possible, with a minimum one-month research/reporting project. All fellows, regardless of the length of their projects, will take part in the group site visits and meetings during the course of the year.
• Research/reporting projects are more sharply focused on U.S. health policy and financing issues such as prescription drugs, health insurance coverage, the uninsured, Medicare, Medicaid, health care costs, and racial and ethnic disparities in care. We want to focus the fellowships program a bit more sharply to address the original reason we established it ten years ago—to help improve reporting and educate the public on complex U.S. health policy issues. The Foundation now operates a separate fellowship program for global health reporting.
• The number of fellows participating in the program each year has increased from five to as many as 10.

What has stayed the same?

Most other aspects of the program remain the same. In addition to undertaking an in-depth research/reporting project, fellows continue to participate in up to five program site visits during their fellowship year and in substantive seminars with health policy experts and leaders. The fellowship program site visits and events provide journalists with the opportunity for in-depth learning about specific topics in health policy. 

Participating journalists still also attend the annual program for Kaiser Fellows held at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, FL, for an intensive three-day program on computer-assisted and multi-media reporting.  As always, we invite a number of other health journalists to join the fellows for these site visits and events.